"Katherina Rosqueta, executive director of the Center for High
Impact Philanthropy at the University of Pennsylvania, explains that
food providers can get what they need for 'pennies on the
dollar.' She estimates that they pay about 10 cents a pound for
food that would cost you $2 per pound retail."

This means Americans would do better to donate money directly,
rather than buy up extra cans of food (at inflated costs, no
less) only to turn around and cast them off.

The cans of donated food aren't all that nutritious—Yglesias
spoke to a development assistant at Washington D.C.'s Bread for
the City who said so—and as much as 50 percent of it goes to
waste, as the holiday season's influx of cans makes it harder for
charity workers to sort through them and determine which ones a
family should receive.

“For a long time we just basically kept politely quiet about the
fact that food drives weren’t as helpful as people assumed,” said
Bloom, the development assistant. But now it looks like they've
had enough, and are trying to use shopping lists and other
guidelines to make the efforts worthwhile.